Nitin Gadkari: Soon, Drive From Mumbai To Bengaluru In Just 6 Hours On 14 Lane Expressway

A number of expressways and highways are currently under construction in India. One more project has now been announced by the ministry, where they aim to connect Mumbai to Bengaluru in just 6 hours. This newly announced project is part of the Bharatmala Pariyojana. This is actually a ₹40,000 crore project which aims to build a 14 lane expressway connecting Mumbai and Bengaluru, reports Trak.

Currently, the journey from Mumbai to Bengaluru or back takes around 18 hours. This time is claimed to be reduced to 6 hours after the project is completed. The newly announced project is a component of the Green Express Highway initiative, which was previously announced by the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari.

Currently, work is in progress on the Pune-Bengaluru Expressway, which will connect to the Mumbai-Pune Expressway via the Pune Ring Road segment. This expressway will be around 700 km long when finished and will connect Bengaluru and Pune—two important IT hubs—directly.

As per the reports, the upcoming highway will be an access-controlled, greenfield route that is intended only for fast-moving automobiles. There will be 22 interchanges and 55 flyovers. Apart from this, the authorities will also build two emergency airstrips on the expressway.The expressway will have a speed limit of 120 kmph.

With the construction of this new expressway, the authorities aim to bring down the distance between Pune and Bengaluru by about 95 km. The upcoming expressway will pass through twelve districts in Karnataka and Maharashtra. It will pass through the districts of Pune, Satara, and Sangli in Maharashtra, beginning at Kanjale on the Pune Ring Road.

In Karnataka, the expressway will traverse through Belagavi, Bagalkot, Gadag, Koppal, Vijayanagar, Davanagere, Chitradurga, Tumakuru, and Bengaluru Rural before reaching Bengaluru city. This will be an eight-lane expressway, and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will oversee the construction of the project.

The newly planned expressway is expected to reduce travelling time and improve travel and trade between Bengaluru, Pune, and Mumbai. The expressway aims to make commuting between the two states easier and also reduce travelling time. As per the reports, the project aims to bring down the travelling time between Mumbai to Bengaluru to just about 6 hours, and from Pune to Bengaluru in four to five hours.

This project is likely to help speed up the flow of people and products, promoting regional development and economic expansion. It will also benefit the commercial and IT sectors in Maharashtra and Karnataka.

While we welcome announcements about new expressways and highway expansion projects, there is one thing that the government should address. Not all projects are getting completed in a timely manner, and in many places, the quality of work is also poor.

The Union Minister had made an announcement in the past that contractors or agencies responsible for bad quality work will be blacklisted and fined. We hope necessary measures are taken in advance to avoid such situations and ensure that funds are utilised properly. The Union Minister issued a fine of ₹50 lakh against a contractor who had failed to proactively implement fixes on a section of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway.